ALONE
by iBananaCat
Summary: She had woken up in a white room remembering nothing. She wants to escape this place, but for some reason, she can't control her powers here. Sadly, she's pretty sure something like this has happened before. (Why are summary's so freackin hard sOmeONe pLeAsE sENd HeLP)
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

Pain fizzed through the head of a blonde cyborg lying spread eagle on a frigid floor. Rubbing the back of her head absentmindedly, the Cyborg hoisted herself off the ground with a gleaming metal hand, and leaned back against a concrete wall.

The Cyborg's room was devoid of furniture due to a tendency to lift things with telekinesis in her sleep. She had no control over her powers during the day, however. Bruises and scars littered her skin from where the scientists had been experimenting on her. Sadly, she was pretty sure this wasn't the first time that had happened. She wouldn't know though, considering that the closest she got to memories was in sleep. The throbbing pain in her head pulled her away from her thoughts, which she assumed was from when she had somehow lifted and dropped herself while unconscious.

After another day of painful experimentation, the Cyborg was returned to her cell. The guard who had brought her there was wearing a standard uniform for this place, pure black shirt and pants, save for a red emblem in the corner of the shirt that looked like a skull with weird snaky thingys. Pondering over the symbol, the Cyborg's eyes met with the guard's eyes. His _green_ eyes. Altan. He was like Altan. The Cyborg keeled over, and her breathing came in ragged gasps. _Maven!... Project Intrisc...you aren't the only one..._ Memories were flooding back the Cyborg faster than she could comprehend them. _Maven. Her name was Maven._ Someone else had erased her memories before, and that had been a mistake. That was how she had escaped. In her anger, she had broken free. Before that, they had tortured her, experimented on her, because she was a mutant. Memories were flicking by like a spinning film reel, and the Cyborg could feel every emotion as they passed. Then more recent memories started to surface. Altan. Her first real friend. He was miles, miles away from here. Where was here? How did she get here? Altan, the others like her, her family, they were so far away...

In her anguish, the Cyborg had started to scream. Walls had started to melt like they were made of candle wax, and the floors had started to shred like paper. With ear-splitting cracks, the ceiling started to give way, but the screaming Cyborg didn't notice. She was encased in a small bubble of glowing white energy. Parting around her, none of the debris touched her. Though she didn't know it, the Cyborgs eyes were glowing pure white.

-  
 _"Director, there's been a non naturally occurring earthquake near Yunkyur, Russia. The 'quake measures a 9.1 and at the center of it is an abnormal energy reading,"_ Crackled a voice over Director Nick Fury's earpiece. Fury swore silently before preparing a breath to respond.

"Causalities?"

"None."

The Director breathed a sigh of relief through his nose. The last thing they needed right now was more press attention.

"Can you figure out what the source of the energy is?"

 _"I'll contact the lab sir."_ There was silence over the earpiece for a minute. And then two minutes. Finally, a response was voiced.

 _"It's a person, sir."_


	2. Chapter 2

Steve Rodgers tapped his foot nervously against the floor of the speeding Quinjet. His vibranium shield was slung over his back, and he was in his Captain America uniform. Fury had sent him, Natasha and Tony to go investigate a large energy emission. Bruce would have been with them too, but he was already busy working on something for SHIELD.

As the Quinjet came to a clean halt, Natasha started to speak.

"Last stop. I'm staying here to take care of the jet. Call me if you need evac or backup."

"Will do. Thanks for the ride scary lady," Tony replied quickly, hopping off the Quinjet. Natasha just sighed and turned to Steve.

"Don't get yourself killed, grandpa," And Steve smiled, accepting that that was probably the closest he was going to get to sentiment from Natasha.

"What the hell," Tony muttered under his breath. Steve had no idea what to make of the scene in front of him. The remnants of the building that were above ground were twisted and shattered. Fallen trees were everywhere, and the earth looked overturned in a wide radius. At the center of it, Steve could make out some sort of white shape.

"Look, up there," Steve said, pointing to the white form. Parting around debris, they slowly made their way over to whatever the thing was. When they got close enough to view what the object was, Steve's jaw dropped and Tony swore loudly. A girl around 14 was floating in midair surrounded by white mist. Her eyes were glowing eerily, and her golden hair was fanned out around her head. But the thing that shocked Steve the most was that one half of her face seemed to be made of _metal_.

"We need to take her back, Tony. She must be what did..." Steve waved his hand around idly, gesturing towards the rubble. "...This." He finished, turning away from the floating girl.

"Are you sure that's a good idea Capsicle? Assuming she did all this..." Tony trailed off, glancing around the destruction. Steve just shrugged and started talking about how to get the girl down.

With a sigh, Natasha turned back to the control board after seeing the girl's metal arm and half of her face.

"Do I even want to know?"

"We just found her floating in this white stuff," Tony replied, but it came out as a whine.

"Something even the great Tony Stark can't explain? Should be interesting," Natasha commented slyly, before starting the engines.

An hour of Tony poking the girl's metal arm and muttering to himself, the trio landed in a SHIELD hanger.

The top of the water was so far away...and she wasn't drowning...it was so comfortable...what if IDS found her? That was ok, Altan would help her...

"She's in a coma," Maven deciphered from someone talking near her. A coma...her brain was too sluggish to comprehend what that meant.

Much time had passed since Tony and Steve had found Maven. Sokovia had been blown to pieces. Bruce was MIA. But Maven was still deaf to the world around her.

"...and we figured out that her brain actually has a kind of hard drive. There's some kind of function installed that suppresses the memories. It's been used twice now. We thought you might want to take a look."

Maven was paying attention to this conversation. It was the first time she had really listened. They were talking about her. It was like she had pulled her head out of the water. How long had she been here? She tried to move her fingers experimentally, but it came out more as a twitch. Whoever was talking next to her conversation stopped with a gasp.

"She's waking up!"

That's when the panic set in. Where was she? Forcing her eyelid's open, she glanced around, panting. She was in some kind of hospital room. There were tubes coming out of her arms. Something was beeping behind her. They were going to wipe her again. Or replay all her memories until she broke. Breathing increasing, she ripped out the cords attached to her arms and scrambled out of bed. Metal legs pounding across a grated floor, visions started to assault her sight. _She was back at IDS. A more recent captor with the black uniforms was dragging her back to her cell_. It was too much. Maven fell to the floor and curled into a ball, a sobbing mess. _She was back with Altan and the other Intrisic, training._ In her anxiety, she barely noticed the familiar feeling of falling back into nothing, and when she opened her eyes again she was back in her hospital room. A man with brown hair and sunglasses jumped back and looked at her like she had grown 3 extra heads.

"Where did you come from, she-robot? You weren't there a second ago!"

"Who are you?" Her voice was gravelly from.

When he didn't answer, she slammed her metal arm into the floor, and shrieked "Who are you!"

Backing away quickly, the man touched his ear and started to speak aloud.

"Can someone get Wanda down here? She can restrain her, and she'll probably trust her more."

By the time the man had finished speaking, Maven had backed into the corner and was shaking uncontrollably.

When Wanda saw the golden-haired girl huddled in a corner of the white room, her heart broke. Tear tracks stained the flesh part of her face, and she was rocking back and forth in a ball. Approaching the girl slowly, she wrapped her arms around her loosely. Wanda felt the girl stiffen under her, but she didn't pull away, which was good.

"You're safe now. It's all going to be ok. We're here to help you."

The girl glanced at her fearfully.

"You're not here to wipe me again? Or show me all my bad memories again?"

Wanda looked at the girl with pity and sadness, but then gave her a small smile.

"You have special powers, right? Wanda asked carefully. The girl nodded. "I am like you then, see?" Wanda coaxed, lifting up a nearby clipboard with her red mist. Glancing back at the cyborg girl, she saw that the fear in her eyes had lessened. Setting her gaze on a table next to them, the girl seemed to concentrate slightly before a white mist lifted to table clean off the ground. For the first time since Pietro's death, Wanda felt her loneliness ease next to this girl. She felt a connection with someone with abilities so similar to her own. The cyborg had turned to her with a smile on her face. And Wanda smiled a genuine smile right back.

"My name is Wanda. What is your name?"

"Maven. My name is Maven."


	3. Chapter 3

Wanda Maximoff had quickly become Maven's favorite person. They connected over their similar powers and generally crappy pasts. Maven tended to start screaming in her sleep, and Wanda always came and comforted her so she didn't teleport somewhere randomly in her distress. Life had been improving. And at long last, they had moved her to the Avengers compound. Maven had been sitting with Wanda in front of the television watching 'Shrek' when Tony had walked in.

"Hey, um, kid..." Maven muted the TV and turned around to face him.

"Yes?"

"So Pepper and I figured that maybe you should," He started, rubbing the back of his neck "go to school?" The end of the question sounded more like a query than a statement, and Tony looked slightly guilty. Maven, who had already had the concept of school explained to her by Wanda, narrowed her eyes slightly.

"You do realize I literally have a _computer_ in my brain, right?" She said calmly, while her face said that she was feeling the complete opposite. Tony took a small step back, before speaking up again.

"Yeah well, we figured it would be good for you to learn to socialize and school would be great for that." Dropping all intention's of staying calm, Maven lept over the couch and stood right in front of Tony. She could have sworn she heard him gulp.

"You do realize that I could easily lose my temper and hurt someone right? Or have another panic attack?" She stepped even closer to Tony and continued "and if I hurt someone, that is on _you_." She poked him in the chest with her metal arm to prove her point. Maven also could have pointed out that she was leaving here as soon as she could remember the name of where she was from and return there. But she still felt slightly guilty about abandoning Tony and Wanda as soon as she got the chance so she didn't say anything.

A 30-minute argument ensued about whether or not Maven was going to attend school. After Wanda stepped in and gently pushed Maven into attending, she finally caved.

"Fine." She huffed, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face. Tony seemed extremely relieved to not be arguing with her anymore and proceeded to tell her about the school she would be going to. Midtown something, Maven wasn't really paying attention. When he told her it would be in Queens, however, she frowned. Weren't there closer schools she could attend? As if reading her mind, Tony told her that was someone like her at that school. Someone like her how? Someone not-from-here? Someone with powers? But Tony only winked and left the room with something about "Romanoff strangling him if her room wasn't set up in time."

It was Saturday, and Maven was supposed to go to school on Monday. She was not in a good mood. When Tony told her that there were going to having visitors, it did absolutely nothing to improve her mood. The day they turned up to the tower, however, Maven's disgust quickly turned to interest. A man with blonde hair and clear blue eyes and a woman with flaming red hair had shown up in the living room while Maven had been throwing a ball at the ceiling in boredom. She had caught the ball, and stood up to greet the visitors. The blonde stepped forward first and was about to introduce himself when the Cyborg cut him off.

"Steven Grant Rodgers, born 1918 July 4th, served along the Howling Commandos from 1943 to 1945. Currently an Avenger and Agent of SHIELD." Ignoring the slightly embarrassed look on Steve's face, she moved on to the redhead. "Natalia Alianova Romanoff, former KGB agent, Currently with SHIELD, Level 7 clearance. Nice to meet you. I'm Maven." Steve look at her incredulously.

"How did you-"  
"I hacked SHIELD yesterday because I was bored. Also, I'm a cyborg. I've got facial recognition systems" Steve now looked like a lost puppy, Maven noted with amusement.

"I mean you don't look like a computer..." He remarked slowly.

"Well the people that made me actually left my Cyborg parts exposed so I would be easier to hunt down if I escaped, but Tony made covers for everything." She finished with a shrug.

"Wait a minute, Tony, isn't this that girl we found in the middle of the Hydra base wreckage?" Looking around, Maven noticed that Tony had entered the room.

"Yes."

"So you're an enhanced?" Steve asked, looking slightly more wary now.

"Yep!" Maven exclaimed happily, lifting the ball she was holding with telekinesis.

"So you're like Wanda?" Natasha asked. She was so quiet, Maven almost forgot she was there.

"Not exactly..." She teleported behind Steve and poked him on the shoulder, then shouted: "Made you look!" And made the ball smack him in the face.

A small smile spread across Natasha's face, and Tony burst out laughing. Even Steve couldn't suppress a grin. Suddenly, Natasha swung a punch at her. Maven sidestepped it and flipped Natasha on her back in an instant. Natasha stood up brushing herself off and grinned widely.

"You and I are going to _very_ good friends."

Natasha and Maven had decided to go out to lunch when Tony and Steve started arguing about if Steve had stolen one of Tony's prized wrenches.

"It was my best one!"

"Why would I steal your wrench?"

The two men didn't seem to notice that Natasha and Maven had been watching the argument unfold in the doorway barely stifling laughter, and when they were well on they're way the nearest restaurant, Natasha pulled out the wrench with a smirk.

"So I'm hoping you don't normally attack people when you first meet them?" Maven asked Natasha.

"It depends on the person," Maven snorted into her sandwich "but no, not normally. I was testing to see your reaction time. The enhanced mostly rely on their powers to fight, but sometimes that's not enough." Maven nodded. She knew that first hand. "But if I may ask," Natasha said rather hesitantly, "who taught you to fight?" Maven froze and gripped the edge of the table as if it was a lifeline. The Creators. They had taught all the intrisic to fight with deadly precision in case they wanted them for fighting later. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up." Natasha could see that this was a very touchy subject, which interested her. The girl had turned up out of nowhere, and Natasha needed to know what kind of threat she posed. Appearing gentle and helpful was the best way to approach the rightfully suspicious teenager.

"I'm very used to people trying to weasel information out of me." Maven sneered, twirling the knife in her hand and glaring at Natasha. Natasha's mind was racing, though none of what she was thinking slipped onto her face. Who was this girl, really? No one had ever figured out she was trying to get information out of them that fast. "You don't have any reason me to trust me. I know. My Creator's trained us when we were young. In case they wanted to turn us into weapon's later." Maven said, spinning the knife faster.

"Who are the Creators? What they did is illegal. SHIELD could arrest them," Maven laughed humorlessly.

"Where I'm from no one cares."

"Where are you from?" Maven frowned.

"I don't know"

"You don't have the faintest idea?"

"I'm not from...earth."

"Oh. Well, that's a bit complicated then." Natasha said, taking a sip of her milkshake. She reached down for her phone, but before she could pull it out, Maven slammed the knife she had been twirling in between her fingers. Natasha raised an eyebrow. Maven pulled the knife out of the table with an audible pop.

"Reflex. Thought you might be pulling out a gun. Sorry." Maven said, not sounding at all sorry.

"I think I might be able to understand some of what it's like." Seeing Maven's confused look she amended "Your past. I was trained to be an assassin since I can remember. Brainwashed me." Maven nodded slowly, and there was a mutual understanding between the two. Life had never treated either of them fairly. And at that moment, both Maven and Natasha felt they had made a new friend.


End file.
